


Love Everlasting

by symphonic__chaos



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Acceptance, Alec lightwood-bane, Angst, Death, Death from heartbreak is a real thing, Denial, Heartbreak, Madzie has no filter, Malec, Max lightwood-bane - Freeform, Multi, Raphael Lightwood-Bane - Freeform, Shadowhunters TV/Chronicles Crossover, magnus lightwood-bane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 04:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19433491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/symphonic__chaos/pseuds/symphonic__chaos
Summary: What do you do when your world falls apart? Max watches it slide, crumble, but he was raised to be strong and right now, that was exactly what Magnus needed.Originally posted on my Tumblr, yamamashay





	Love Everlasting

" _Hey, Madz, it's Max. I uh... Can you and Cat come over as soon as possible? It's my Papa. I... I think he's finally gone."_

\--

Their love story had been passed along through generations and the successful bonding of Downworlder's with the Shadowhunters was accredited to them. Alec and Magnus Lightwood-Bane, the Consul of Idris and High Warlock of both Brooklyn and Alicante. His papa and his dad. Beyond that, they were the definition of soulmates. They were the best friends and lovers anyone had seen, he'd heard it so many times from people that admired the way they looked at each other.

Max had seen it growing up, in the subtle touches to the back or arm, the way a well manicured and painted hand would brush the hair from blue eyes when a trim was needed, or the way a pale hand would rest on the back of a tan neck whenever they'd watch movies. Both he and Rafe had learned what true love was because of them, not just by watching, but by receiving. Open arms, a shoulder to cry on, a glove padded hand to punch when they were angry and needed a safe outlet. Never on each other or others, his dad was always there to bring them to the training room and let them practice sparring with him to get it all out.

Their fathers were icons, role models, heroes, but on top of all that, they were their world. Saviors that took them in when no one else wanted them, according to the stories they'd been told when old enough and curious enough to ask, understanding fully well that two men could not conceive children.

Magnus always looked so proud when he told them how he met Alexander, who shot someone trying to kill him for Valentine. Max could recall how shy his dad got every time Magnus told the story, but he could always see the pride in his eyes. Books were always left behind when it came to bedtime, Max and Rafe always wanted to know about their adventures, all the bad guys and the good guys, the harrowing tales of how they escaped from demons and dragons alike. Stories of the bravest people they had known and still knew, about their aunts and uncles, of how they would be just as strong and brave when they were older- how they'd have stories to tell too, some day.

Rafael had plenty of his stories to tell, he'd quickly risen up ranks to be his father's right hand man as he grew up. He'd found love, placed his firstborn in not Magnus's, but Alec's arms first. Max knew from Magnus's face that he understood exactly why. 

Without Alec, that little girl wouldn't have been alive, and it was finally Rafe's way of saying 'Thank you' to him. Both of them had fought side by side in battles, never once leaving each other's side, just as it had been growing up, the alliance rune consistently burned into their skin. Their uncle, Jace, had told them that if there was ever a possibility for a Shadowhunter and Warlock to be parabatai, the brothers were the perfect example. Clary had gone on to explain to the boys exactly what a parabatai was and Max remembered the warm feeling of pride that it filled him with.

When Rafe was killed, that was the day he believed it the most. That was the day the warmth he'd grown so used to, disappeared.

While the pain was evident in Magnus's scream, it had paralyzed Max in his spot as he watched the sword pulled from his brothers chest. Max had failed him. Magnus had failed him. Alec had trusted them when they told him to go ahead and get the greater demon leading the pack, sworn to him that they would protect each other and nothing would happen. Ten minutes of fighting each other and Alec's refusal to leave, followed by Magnus's words of ' _I promise you, we will be fine, Alexander! They need you up there!_ '

They had worked together in tandem to keep Rafe stabilized, Rafe's wife and Madzie's runes burning bright as they fended off anyone that came towards them. Papa was crying beside him, begging Rafael to hold on and then he was screaming for Catarina, his magic not enough in the healing field like it was hers. Max was numb, his hands trembling as he tried healing with one hand as his other clung to Rafael's. He felt the clammy sweat as he kissed the Shadowhunter's forehead, whispering how sorry he was that he didn't stop the demon.

"It's okay, Max, stop crying. S-stop I'll be ffiiii-" the word cut off in a gasped, pained breath. Catarina kicked up dirt as she slid to their side, encouraging Madzie to keep it up, she was doing great. Her hands made quick work sealing the wound, but her furrowed brows let them both know that it wasn't good at all. Poison.

Four warlocks had fought that night to keep Rafael stable, but their efforts couldn't pay off. 

Max was numb for days, unable to cry any more for his lost brother, his best friend. A week had passed before that dam burst, the three of them seated in his parents living room in silence, with Magnus acting like he was reading a book while they all knew he was in another mental zone. Alec was on the opposite end of the couch watching the window and the cats sleeping on the sill outside it. Max had stayed with them for that week and listened to the hushed arguments behind the closed bedroom door, then the sobbed apologies that followed it. They blamed themselves, they blamed each other, but both knew in the end Rafe would have told them they needed to move on and keep going, he'd followed in their 'here and now' philosophy.

Max looked from the two of them to the framed drawing on the wall nearby. Rafael had drawn a picture of them all when he was 9, all of them smiling and his arm around Max's shoulder.

The pained wail had left Max before he realized it was coming, his heart suddenly feeling as though it was shattering, his entire body shuddering as he doubled over. Tears streamed down his face as Magnus fell off the couch and practically crawled to him, grabbing him and looking him over quickly, his magic warm to Max's seemingly cold everything, begging him to tell him what was wrong. Alec was at his back, silent, he knew exactly what was wrong and his arms wrapped around both Max and Magnus to pull them close.

The next time he'd felt lost like that was when he was holding the wrinkled, thin, but strong hand in his own. The sun illuminated the spots on the pale skin that had come with age, his blue eyes traveling along the scars left behind and the runes that had sagged with his skin, with age. They followed along the shoulders that shook with each deep cough, the shaggy gray hair pushed out of his eyes by slim, ringed fingers, just as they'd done for years. They settled on the fingers that were intertwined, one young, one old, on each tear that dripped onto the back of his dad's hand. They'd found a way to elongate his life as much as they could without him being immortal, but even the Seelie Queen told them the plant couldn't do it forever, it was just poison him eventually.

A ragged breath was taken in, followed by the hitched and held breath from his papa as he watched his fingers tighten around Alec's. Max couldn't bring himself to look at his father's aged face yet, it had been a week and he had only looked once or twice. He needed to be strong for his papa, he needed to hold it together. They'd been strong for him during all of his pets deaths, Rafe's death, during breakups and injuries, he felt like he owed them this.

_"I love you so, so much, Alexander. My Alexander. My Alec. I will never stop. I will never, ever stop. You are my one, you are my light in the darkness. You're... You're everything I ever could have asked for, dreamed for, and it was such an honor to be married to you, to be by your side and to finally know what true love was. My soul, no matter how black, it's yours. Everything is yours. It always has been and it always will be. I will find you again, I promise."_

Magnus's words were said in a trembling hush as Max finally looked up at them, finally looked at his dad's face. Looked at papa's lips resting at the corner of Alec's, watched the tears steadily going down his cheeks and smudging the makeup that he'd prided 'would never run, always look perfect and gorgeous'. The way his dad's lips curled up, his energy used up to give him that brief flash of a smile, his voice raspy as he whispered the last words they'd hear him say.

" _I love you, Magnus. I love you, all three of you._ "

Max finally cried then, knowing Rafe was there, waiting for their dad. He was always there, Max could always feel someone, something there. Rafe hadn't let go when they sent him off, he had stayed to look over them and Max always knew it.

\--

"Has he been like this the whole time?" Catarina asked quietly as they peeked into the room, gazing at Magnus laying on his left side with his fingers curled around the pillow on the right side of the bed.

"Three days. He was fine before and we were moving some boxes out of the storage closet and one of them fell. There was a bunch of pictures of him and dad in there, they look like they were from when they first were together." Max's voice was equally quiet, strained. "I don't get it, it's been four years and he's been fine. Why..."

"Because he's been strong for you, Max." Madzie near-whispered from the couch beside them, her voice soon growing louder.

"You can't tell me you haven't noticed the light in his eyes left when your dad died. You can't tell me that every smile hasn't been strained. All of the pictures of your dad, of them, he took them all down and hid them. Same with Rafe's. Everyone sees it Max, why can't you?"

Catarina's head whipped towards her daughter as she opened her mouth to tell her to stop being so insensitive, but Max didn't hear it, a ringing in his ears once she'd finished speaking. She was right and he knew it. They'd grown up just as close as he and Rafe, they'd been best friends and she'd always been unafraid to be real with him when he needed to hear it.

"I guess I... I just assumed that... We were both being strong. That he was ... Stronger than me and he could..." As the words left his mouth, Madzie's eyes, full of tears, narrowed angrily.

"He could what, Max? He could handle his entire world collapsing on him, twice? That he could look at Alec's face and Rafe's face and not fall apart? What do you think he'd do if he lost you, too? You're 118 years old, he's taught you everything he knows and he's watched you grow up, get married, adopt. You've moved on and you don't need him anymore, Max, and he knows it. His heart never healed and you know that, too."

Each of Madzie's words stung but despite his mind wanting to deny it, he knew she was right. He'd been through girlfriend's, boyfriend's, fiance's and flings. Now his own partner was home with their daughter, while he was here staring at his papa, who had finally collapsed under the wreckage that had been left behind by his father's death. Max had been selfish in his hope that everything would be fine. That after losing so much, he couldn't lose his papa, too.

He swallowed.

"Papa...?"

His steps were silent on the area rug as he moved to kneel beside Alec's side of the bed. The pillowcases on this side were a rumpled mess, they all knew that Magnus wouldn't wash them after Alec left, too afraid to lose his smell and not caring about the hygiene aspect. The same had been for every piece of clothing in the closet, each had been wrapped around the pillow to be held close at night, until there was nothing left. Even though the sheets and comforter had been changed, Alec's side would always stay made up and untouched.

It was as if Magnus didn't register the voice, his makeup-less eyes looking so...void. He had tried moving on like Alec had told him long ago when they discussed him dying some day. Max had seen the men and women dismissed, blue eyes full of disappointment and black hair parading out without so much as a kiss. Magnus had tried to find someone new, but Max knew he was trying to find Alec again. Looking at him now, he looked like a shell. He looked tired, worn, aged, even though he had finished aging decades ago.

Papa was long gone.

Blue fingers moved out slowly to wrap around those void of rings, of nail polish, of everything that made him, him.

"Papa..." He whispered then, his voice thick with the tears that threatened to spill.

"It's... It's okay. I love you. I love you and you did so well, and I'm so proud of you. You're so strong." His lips met knuckles scarred by walls that had been punched out of anger, grief.

"It's okay to let go, papa. I'll be okay, we'll all be okay. You protected everyone, not just us, everyone in the world. My bapa, Ultra Magnus..." His breath hitched then as Magnus's eyes shifted, looking from between his and Alec's pillow to him, instead. "Go find daddy, bapa. He's waiting for you."

A smile was forced as he felt the faintest squeeze to his hand, Magnus's voice strained as he whispered, "I love you, Max."

Max forced himself to hold the smile there, against Magnus's hand as he opened it and place it flat against his cheek, hearing Madzie's choked sob from the living room and Catarina stepping away as she took in a sharp breath. He smiled for him even as Magnus's own smile faded and his eyes closed.

He smiled for him even as the tears fell. When the Shadowhunters came to pick up the body- they would give him a send off like one of their own.

He stopped forcing that smile days later when he moved the large comforter and sheets off of the bed to strip it, only to find that Alec's side had always been undisturbed because every picture lay underneath those sheets. When he'd asked Magnus where he put all the pictures, he'd only been told 'Somewhere safe.' Now, not it all made sense. He'd put them there because they would always be safe with him, and Alec would always be beside him.

Max curled up on Magnus's side of the bed as his eyes stayed on the pictures, his fingers curling around Magnus's pillow as he curled himself around it, Madzie soon climbing in and wrapping herself around him. He could feel her tears through his shirt.

"They were so proud of you, Max."


End file.
